Amtrak ridership soars in Illinois

Thanks to the reader who forwarded this story from St. Louis Today.

 

On right track, Amtrak ridership soars in Illinois

By Terry Hillig

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

08/23/2007

Passengers board a Chicago bound Amtrak train on Tuesday in St. Louis. (Huy Richard Mach/P-D)

Train service between St. Louis and Chicago might just be a hit with travelers.

Passenger train ridership in the St. Louis-Chicago corridor is up more than 40 percent since October, when Amtrak added two trains to the three that already offered daily round-trip service.

Amtrak also added one train each to its Chicago-Quincy and Chicago-Carbondale corridors, and those routes also have seen big ridership gains. The expanded service was made possible when the Illinois Legislature almost doubled the state’s Amtrak funding to $24 million.

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Filed under: Amtrak, Regional USA Passenger Rail

Veto looms for California HSR

This longer AP story brings the California budget struggoe, which has gone on for past 50 days into the fiscal year, into a clearer focus.

Will Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegg keep his promises to support high speed rail?

The overdue state budget that lawmakers approved Tuesday includes $20.7 million to continue engineering and environmental work on that project. But Florez and Assemblywoman Fiona Ma said they were concerned Schwarzenegger might veto the money before he signs the budget into law.

Schwarzenegger promised Republican lawmakers he would use his line-item veto power to cut $700 million to balance the $145 billion budget. A spokesman for the governor’s Department of Finance, H.D. Palmer, would not say whether the high-speed rail money would be among the cuts.

“We have never telegraphed in advance what we will or will not veto,” Palmer said. “That remains the case today.”

Eliminating the high-speed rail funding from this year’s budget could undercut efforts to convince voters to approve a $9.9 billion bond measure that is on the November 2008 ballot, Ma and Florez said.

Most of the bond money would be used to help pay for a first leg of the high-speed rail project between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area.

KCBS adds some detail (audio report on link).

… a governor’s spokeswoman told KCBS that Schwarzenegger does support high speed rail, but fears the $30 billion cost relies too heavily on the state’s taxpayers, rather than federal funding and private investors.

Filed under: Passenger Rail Politics, United States High Speed Rail

Iowa Governor makes rail pact appointments

August 22, 2007 — (Des Moines) – Today Iowa Governor Chet Culver announced the appointments of two of four members to the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Compact. The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Compact, created by an interstate compact in 2000, advocates for expansion of and improvements to the mid-west’s passenger rail system. The commission provides a unified component of a strong transportation system for the future. Member states include Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and Ohio. The compact was created by House File 559.

Governor Culver said, “I’m please that a person from the private sector and a member of my staff will join two respected, hard-working legislators to serve on this important compact. I’m very interested in examining the possibility of developing an improved passenger rail service that better serves Iowa and the midwest.”

* Terms begin immediately and members serve at the pleasure of the Governor.
* Members: Two Legislative members and two members appointed by the Governor that include: the Governor or Governor’s designee and a member of the private sector.

(Member, Position, City)
Senator Daryl Beall, Legislative Member, Fort Dodge
Representative Paul Bell, Legislative Member, Newton
James Larew (appointed), Governor’s designee, Iowa City
Patrick Hendricks (appointed), Private Sector, Norwalk

Purpose of Commission: To promote development and implementation of improvements to intercity passenger rail service in the mid-west. To coordinate interaction among mid-western state elected officials and their designees on passenger rail issues. To promote development and implementation of long-range plans for high-speed rail passenger service in the mid-west and among other regions of the United States. To work with the public and private sectors at the federal, state and local levels to ensure coordination among the various entities having an interest in passenger rail service and to promote mid-western interests regarding passenger rail. To support efforts of transportation agencies involved in developing and implementing passenger rail service in the mid-west. For more about the MIPRC, visit www.miprc.org.

Source: Iowa Governor

Filed under: Passenger Rail Transportatio Policy, Regional USA Passenger Rail

Airlines back HSR

This is not really a surprise, but the timing could hardly be better. In the midst of a lengthy and worthwhile story about recent increases in Amtrak ridership (even beyone the Northeast corridor), New Jersey’s Courier News reports that the aviation industry in America has much the same outlook as Europeans.

But some big names in the airline industry are supporting Amtrak by calling for the U.S. to do what governments in Europe and Asia have long done _ building high-speed train lines for short-distance travelers and freeing up runway space for long-distance flights.

“You have to begin to put the infrastructure in place to put in high-speed trains,” says Gordon Bethune, who retired in 2004 as chief executive of Continental Airlines Inc. “It should be a national priority. If the French can do it, why can’t we?”

Another airline-industry legend Robert Crandall, former CEO of American Airlines parent AMR Corp., says improvements to Amtrak’s network in the Northeast are one of the best ways to reduce aviation gridlock.

Since Amtrak introduced higher speed Acela trains in 2000, the railroad’s share of the 10,000 daily plane or train passengers traveling between Washington and New York has grown to 54 percent from 45 percent. The Acela runs as fast as 135 miles per hour between New York and Washington. It reaches its top 150 mph speed on a small part of the route between New York and Boston. Amtrak’s share of the Boston-New York air-rail market is also up, but by a lower amount.

Chris Gremski, who manages travel for the New York-based Open Society Institute, investor George Soros’s charitable foundation, says a significant number of the foundation’s employees have switched to Acela from air shuttles between New York and Washington. Airport security lines and flight delays are wiping out the time savings of the plane, he says, and Acela is cheaper (the one-way nondiscounted fare for the New York-Washington Acela is $199, compared with $324 for the air shuttle).

Mr. Gremski says some employees also are using the train because they think it is more fuel-efficient and less polluting than the plane.

But there are definite limits to how much more Acela can do. Alex Kummant, Amtrak’s president and CEO, said in a presentation recently that Amtrak is constrained by the size of the Acela fleet, which numbers 20 trains. If he had his druthers, Mr. Kummant said Amtrak would be able to add cars to Acela trains to meet demand, rather than being limited to 304 passengers by Acela’s fixed complement of six cars and two locomotives.

This one is loaded with good information.

Filed under: Passenger Rail Transportatio Policy, United States High Speed Rail

The highway “ox” is gored, an Oregon perspective

Here is a specimen of a grieving highway piglet whose slop ration has been cut by a sensible legislature. The Register-Guard carries a guest opinion from Rep. George Gilman of Medford who is vice chairman of the House Transportation Committee and a member of the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Transportation and Economic Development. Nobody from Arkansas should criticize anybody else’s politics, but TFA suspects that Gilman is completely in the bag to special interests. Or it could be that he just really really loves those nice people who build highways out of a love for mankind and don’t expect to expect billions a year.

On some initiatives, the 2007 Legislature was very aggressive on spending. We passed the ConnectOregon II project to provide $100 million in grants to nonhighway transportation projects. This funding is in addition to $100 million we approved for the ConnectOregon I program two years ago.

Much of the new transportation spending is questionable. The Legislature approved $250 million in financing to extend the light-rail system in metropolitan Portland and $20 million in financing to increase the number of streetcars within the city. We also provided $4.5 million in discretionary funds to subsidize passenger rail service.

These pork projects were stuffed into huge omnibus bills to minimize opposition. These projects may promote Oregon’s “green” reputation, but they will do nothing to reduce congestion on Oregon’s highways.

Wicked darned pork projects! Now, what do you suppose the good representative believes represents responsible spending?

 Of course, large-scale highway projects require lots of money, and the state typically must borrow in order to complete these projects. Prior to the session, Oregon might have had the borrowing capacity to significantly increase highway funding, but the Legislature chose to borrow money to finance projects such as $7 million to build a Hillsboro parking garage and $3 million to finance digital equipment for Oregon Public Broadcasting. The Legislature also determined that our highways were less important than the state agency buildings and parking lots that we’re spending millions to renovate and build.

Well, Mr. Highway Guy, just forgive the rest of us for even living.

Filed under: Passenger Rail Politics, Regional USA Passenger Rail

Amtrak advances gain notice

The StreetBlog carries a story about increases in Amtrak ridership and a recent report int eh Wall Street Journal. While linking to another link may be somewhat cheesy, it is information you need and the blog is very well done.

Filed under: Amtrak